TSMC Drops Hint of Processor Deal With AMD

As chip manufacturers make transistors smaller and pack them closer together, they need to prevent electrons leaking from one part of the transistor to another. A long-standing problem, leakage becomes severe with chips made using a 45-nm process. The number refers to the average size of the smallest feature that can be created on a chip.

To solve the leakage problem, chip makers turned to high-K materials that significantly reduce leakage compared to silicon dioxide, which is used with older process technologies.